GI Special: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 1.28.07 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.

GI SPECIAL 5A27:

ENOUGH. BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

U.S. soldiers hug each other as they grieve during the memorial service for late PFC Allen Brenton Jaynes from Texas in the U.S. forces army camp in Baghdad, January 26, 2007. Jaynes was killed last week by a roadside bomb while four of his colleagues were wounded. REUTERS/Erik de Castro

VA Kills Marine Iraq Vet; Refused Help By VA After

Begging For Hospital Admission, He Hangs Himself

[Here it is again. Same old story. Used up, thrown away, and the politicians couldn’t care less. [To repeat for the 3,474th time, there is no enemy in Iraq. Iraqis and U.S. troops have a common enemy. That common enemy owns and operates the Imperial government in Washington DC for their own profit. That common enemy started this war of conquest on a platform of lies, because they couldn’t tell the truth: this war was about making money for them, and nothing else. Payback is overdue. [The Iraqis are right to resist, and so are our troops. T]

************************************************************ [Thanks to Andy Sapp, Iraq War veteran, who sent this in. He writes: [“Just in the last month I've read about five Iraq vets who have killed themselves after having been unable to get treatment. The administration still wants to cut the VA, and Congress seems content with level-funding or modest increases. If we can find hundreds of billions to give to Halliburton, DynCorp, Blackwater, and the rest of the corporate criminals, why can't we double or triple the VA's mental health services? [“Well, it seems the answer is that the administration doesn't care a lick about the troops once they're done with them.”

Jonathan Schulze

January 26, 2007 By Kevin Giles, Star Tribune [Excerpts] Schulze's father and stepmother, Jim and Marianne Schulze of rural Stewart, Minn., say their son would be alive today if the VA had acted on his pleas for admittance. They say they heard him tell VA staff in St. Cloud that he felt suicidal -- in person on Jan. 11 at the hospital, and over the phone on Jan. 12. At first, Jonathan Schulze tried to live with the nightmares and the grief he brought home from Iraq. He was a tough kid from central Minnesota, and more than that, a U.S. Marine to the core. Yet his moods when he returned home told another story. He sobbed on his parents' couch as he told them how fellow Marines had died, and how he, a machine gunner, had killed the enemy. In his sleep, he screamed the names of dead comrades. He had visited a psychiatrist at the VA hospital in Minneapolis. Two weeks ago, Schulze went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud. He told a staff member he was thinking of killing himself, and asked to be admitted to the mental health unit, said his father and stepmother, who accompanied him.

They said he was told he couldn't be admitted that day. The next day, as he spoke to a counselor in St. Cloud by phone, he was told he was No. 26 on the waiting list, his parents said. Four days later, Schulze, 25, committed suicide in his New Prague home. Schulze's father and stepmother, Jim and Marianne Schulze of rural Stewart, Minn., say their son would be alive today if the VA had acted on his pleas for admittance. They say they heard him tell VA staff in St. Cloud that he felt suicidal -- in person on Jan. 11 at the hospital, and over the phone on Jan. 12. On the evening of Jan. 16, Schulze called family and friends to tell them that he was preparing to kill himself. They called New Prague police, who smashed in the door and found him hanging from an electrical cord. Police attempted to resuscitate him, but it was too late. Schulze's family doctor in Stewart, a farming crossroads in McLeod County, said he was convinced that Schulze suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, a disabling mental condition that can result from military combat. "Jonathan was a classic," said Dr. William Phillips, who said he first examined Schulze in October 2004 when Schulze was home on leave from Marine duty. Phillips said Schulze was reliving combat in his sleep, had flashbacks when he was awake, couldn't eat, felt paranoid, struggled with relationships and admitted to drinking alcohol excessively. Phillips prescribed medication to calm his nerves and help him sleep. "We don't have a system for this," Phillips said this week. "The VA is overwhelmed, and we're rural doctors out here trying to deal with this. Unfortunately, we're going to see a lot of Jonathans." After Schulze left the Marines in late 2005, he continued to have aching memories of combat. "When he got back from Iraq he was mentally scattered," said his older brother Travis, who also served there with the Marines. Much of Jonathan Schulze's anguish seemed to relate to combat in Ramadi in April 2004. Schulze, who carried a heavy machine gun, wrote his parents that 16 Marines, many of them close friends, had died in two afternoons of firefights and bombings. Twice he was wounded but didn't tell his parents, not wanting them to worry. He wrote them about dismembered bodies. About youth and combat and disillusionment. And about the bombs. "I pray so much over here and ask God to keep me out of harm's way and to make it back home alive and in one piece," he wrote Jim and Marianne in May 2004. "I bet I easily pray over a dozen times a day and I always pray while I am on patrol as I am terrified of getting hit by an IED aka a bomb. Our vehicle elements and Marines on

patrols are getting hit hard by these bombs the Iraqis plant all over and hide on the ground." Schulze carried guilt that fellow Marines died. He wanted to return to Iraq to somehow redeem himself, said his father, who did three tours of duty in Vietnam. Because of that, Schulze at first resisted counseling, Jim Schulze said: "Being a Marine, he was too proud to get help. They want to make you impervious of any emotion. And when you get out it's almost impossible to put it back the way it was." When Schulze left the Marine Corps, he participated in military color guards, visited aging veterans in the state homes, helped anyone in need. He worked with his stepfather building houses. An unmarried father, Schulze bragged of adoration for his young daughter, Kaley Marie, on his MySpace website. But the war always got in the way of a normal life. Schulze was on an emotional roller coaster and couldn't get off, said his close Marine friend from Iraq, Eric Satersmoen, who with Schulze's stepbrothers described him as becoming uncharacteristically quiet. "Lot of inner turmoil, lot of flashbacks, lot of nightmares," was how Jim Schulze described his son. The Jan. 11 visit to the VA in St. Cloud came a few weeks after Jonathan Schulze waited for more than three hours at the VA hospital in Minneapolis, hoping to be admitted, Jim Schulze said. His son last saw a psychiatrist at the Minneapolis VA on Dec. 14 but someone there told him he couldn't be admitted for treatment until March, Jim Schulze said. They went to St. Cloud with the expectation that Jonathan could be admitted quicker. Satersmoen and Travis Schulze think that Jonathan Schulze didn't intend to kill himself. They said that he was drunk and confused and speculate that he unintentionally blacked out before police arrived. Secondary causes of death, said the Minnesota Regional Coroner's Office in Hastings, were post-traumatic stress disorder and acute and chronic alcoholism. At the funeral in Prior Lake, Schulze lay in his Marine dress blues, two Purple Hearts and his other medals pinned to his tunic. Dozens of young men -- fellow Marines -- gathered in groups to tell stories. They called him Jonny. He was funny, they said. The life of the party. Cold wind ripped across the cemetery in Stewart where he was buried. Veterans from the Hutchinson, Minn., VFW fired a three-volley salute.

Travis Schulze, dressed in black, and Satersmoen, wearing Marine dress blues, removed the flag from the casket and folded it. Travis Schulze presented the flag to his father. And saluted him. "He was a delayed casualty of the Iraq war," Jim Schulze said of Jonathan.

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IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Pennsylvania Soldier Killed

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Keith A. Callahan, 31, of McClure, Pa., died Jan. 24 after an improvised explosive device detonated while he was on combat patrol south of Baghdad. Callahan was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

IED Kills Two U.S. Soldiers In Baghdad Jan. 27, 2007 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20070127-15

BAGHDAD - An improvised explosive device detonated on a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol in an eastern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, killing two Soldiers Jan. 25. The unit was conducting a combat patrol when the roadside bomb detonated, killing two Soldiers and wounding two others.

Hayward Soldier Dies In Iraq Blast 01/27/2007 By Matt O'Brien , STAFF WRITER, ANG Newspapers HAYWARD — Army Pfc. Michael Balsley, who had followed his father's footsteps into military service, was killed Thursday while on nighttime patrol east of Baghdad. The 23-year-old soldier from Hayward had been serving in Iraq for a little more than three months when his Humvee "hit some sort of explosive device" late Thursday night, said James Balsley, his father. "He gave it everything he had," the tearful dad said Friday morning at the family's home. "A lot of guys his age, they want to just hang out. Michael was dedicated to do something not just with his life, but for the United States of America." Michael Balsley left for Iraq in early October with members of the Army's 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Carson, Colo. He was supposed to be on the combat tour for about 12 months, assigned to ground patrol and tracking enemy movements. Beverly Balsley, his mother, said her easygoing son was homesick but "sounded really good" the last time she spoke with him. "I asked him if there was anything he needed, and he said phone cards, pictures and letters," she said. Soon after news of his death arrived Thursday night, friends and family members began keeping constant vigil at the Victory Drive home where Michael Balsley grew up. Relatives including his grandmother, Annabelle Hibbs, live in nearby houses in the Longwood-Winton Grove neighborhood. Beverly and James Balsley are active members of Operation Mom, the Castro Valley-based support group for military families. Several members of the organization gathered in the home as an Army bereavement officer addressed the family Friday. The elder Balsley, a veteran of the Vietnam War, spoke with The Daily Review, a sister paper for The Argus, just before Veterans Day last year about the importance of supporting those who have served — and currently serve — in the military. "I think Michael has the same personality as I have, to a degree," he said in November, proudly showing off photographs in the same room where, on Friday, he mourned his

son. "He kind of looks at the world differently. He sees himself as an average guy (who's) going through life." It was the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, his parents said, that made Michael Balsley, a graduate of Mt. Eden High School, want to join the Army. He is survived by his wife, Samantha, and a 1-year-old stepson who live near Ft. Carson. He is also survived by his 25-year-old brother. Balsley is the second Hayward soldier to become a casualty in Iraq this month. Larry Otterstetter, 21 and also a graduate of Mt. Eden, survived an attack on Jan. 7 but was undergoing surgery this week on his eyes and eardrum.

Ohio Soldier Killed

Spc. Nicholas P. Brown, 24, of Huber Heights, Ohio, who died Jan. 22 in Mosul, Iraq. Brown was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

Army Soldier From Peoria Killed In Iraq Jan. 14, 2007 Angelique Soenarie and Betty Beard, The Arizona Republic On Christmas Eve, Joyce Raderstorf spoke to her grandson, who called from Iraq. That night, the phone was passed to each family member gathered for the holiday so they could hear his voice. It would be their final chance.

Army Cpl. Stephen J. Raderstorf of Peoria died last Sunday in Balad, Iraq, of wounds received in combat, the Defense Department announced Saturday. Details were not available. His body arrived in the Valley on Saturday. Services are planned for Tuesday and Wednesday. "He just turned 21 on December 23. He was looking forward to coming home in February," Raderstorf said. "It was his first Christmas and birthday away from home." The soldier had been in Iraq just three months. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas. Family members said Stephen always wanted a career in the Army. He was the eldest of three sons of James and Sharon Raderstorf and a 2003 graduate of Prescott High School. "Even when he was in high school he was talking to recruiters," his grandmother said. His dream was to be a paratrooper and later work in special services, she said. He was deployed to Iraq on Oct. 1. "I am proud of what he did. I am proud of him, and he died a hero," said his brother Philip, 16, a student at Raymond S. Kellis High School in Peoria. Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Chapel of the Chimes Mortuary, 7924 N. 59th Ave., Glendale. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the mortuary. Military honors will follow at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix.

Greenfield Soldier Wounded In Iraq

Justin Fletcher

Jan 27, 2007 David MacAnally, Eyewitness News

Greenfield - A soldier from Greenfield serving in Iraq was wounded this week. Army PFC Justin Fletcher suffered injuries to his face after an improvised explosive device went off near his vehicle while he was on patrol. "He broke his nose," says his mother Judi Peper. "Fractures to his face. Some shrapnel in his head." Wednesday started as a routine Baghdad patrol for the 20-year-old soldier. "Then they went over what he would consider a pot hole. But inside the hole was a bomb and they detonated it," says his mother. "Truck went up and flipped over, completely over." The truck landed back on its wheels, but the drama on that Baghdad day was not over. His unit commander was down and another soldier got on the radio and called for help because they were still taking fire. Those calls brought a STRIKER vehicle to rescue the soldiers. An NBC crew at the hospital got video of PFC Fletcher and his wounded comrades. From the hospital Fletcher was able to call his mother in Greenfield, warn her that the video could be on the news and assure her that he was all right. "He's doing really well; he's in good spirits," Peper said. Since kindergarten, Fletcher wanted to be a soldier. He wants to grow his military career even as concern grows back home over US goals and the danger grows for our troops. PFC Fletcher could be back on patrol next week. [With “Some shrapnel in his head"?] His mother hopes he's home by summer. He received the Purple Heart from an Army General this week and two company commendations.

U.S. Command In Baghdad Lied About The Death Of Four U.S.

Soldiers In Karbala: They Were Captured And Killed;

Commanders Said They Died “Repelling The Attack”

1/26/2007 BAGHDAD (AP) Four American soldiers were abducted during a sophisticated sneak attack last week in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and their bodies were found up to 25 miles away, according to new information obtained by The Associated Press. The assault, 50 miles south of Baghdad on Jan. 20, was conducted by nine to 12 militants posing as an American security team. They traveled in black GMC Suburban vehicles — the type used by U.S. government convoys — had American weapons, wore new U.S. military combat fatigues, and spoke English. In a written statement, the U.S. command reported at the time that five soldiers were killed while "repelling the attack." Now, two senior U.S. military officials as well as Iraqi officials say four of the five were captured and taken from the governor's compound alive. Three of them were found dead and one mortally wounded later that evening in locations as far as 25 miles east of the governor's office. The U.S. officials said they could not be sure where the soldiers were shot after being captured at the compound. Iraqi officials said they believe the men were killed just before the Suburbans were abandoned. The commando team also took an unclassified U.S. computer with them as its members fled with the four soldiers and left behind an American M-4 automatic rifle, senior U.S. military officials said. The new information has emerged after nearly a week of inquiries. The U.S. military in Baghdad did not respond to repeated requests for comment on reports that began emerging from Iraqi government and military officials on the abduction and a major breakdown in security at Karbala site. The two senior American military officials now confirm the reports, gathered by The Associated Press from five senior Iraqi government, military and religious leaders. The U.S. military also has provided additional details from internal military accounts. "The precision of the attack, the equipment used and the possible use of explosives to destroy the military vehicles in the compound suggests that the attack was well rehearsed prior to execution," said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for Multi-National Division-Baghdad. The Karbala raid, as explained by the Iraqi and American officials, began after nightfall at about 6 p.m. on Jan. 20, while American military officers were meeting with their Iraqi counterparts on the main floor of the Provisional Joint Coordination Center (PJCC) in Karbala.

Iraqi officials said the approaching convoy of black GMC Suburbans was waved through an Iraqi checkpoint at the edge of Karbala. The Iraqi soldiers believed it to be American because of the type of vehicles, the distinctive camouflage American uniforms and the fact that they spoke English. One Iraqi official said the leader of the assault team was blond, but no other official confirmed that. A top Iraqi security official for Karbala province told the AP that the Iraqi guards at the checkpoint radioed ahead to their compatriots at the PJCC to alert them that the convoy was on its way. Iraqi officials said the attackers' convoy divided upon arrival, with some vehicles parking at the back of the main building where the meeting was taking place, others parked in front. The U.S. military in Baghdad received a first report of the attack about 6:15 p.m., the senior U.S. military officials said. The attackers threw a grenade and opened fire with automatic rifles as they grabbed two soldiers inside the compound. Then the guerrilla assault team jumped on top of an armored U.S. Humvee and captured two more soldiers, the U.S. military officials said. In its statement, the U.S. military said one soldier was killed and three were wounded by a "hand grenade thrown into the center's main office which contains the provincial police chief's office on an upper floor." All the officials agreed the four abducted soldiers did not die in the fighting at the compound in Karbala, but it was unclear where they were killed. The attackers fled with the four and the computer and headed east toward Mahwil, in neighboring Babil province, about 25 miles away, the U.S. military officials said. Iraqi officials said the U.S. military found the four U.S. soldiers in the Suburbans near Bu-Alwan, a village near Mahawil. The U.S. officials, who had seen incident reports of the assault, said the documents indicated two of the soldiers were found in one of the Suburbans at one location and two others in a second Suburban elsewhere. The exact locations were not specified, they said. Both sides agreed that — when found — three soldiers were dead and one was wounded and died as U.S. troops rushed the service member away for treatment. The Defense Department has released the names of troops killed last Saturday but clearly identified only one as being killed because of the sneak attack. Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31, of Temecula, Calif., "died of wounds suffered when his meeting area came under attack by mortar and small arms fire." Freeman was assigned to the 412th Civil Affairs Battalion, Whitehall, Ohio.

The only other troops killed that day in that region of Iraq were four Army soldiers said to have been "ambushed while conducting dismounted operations" in Karbala.

Green Zone Hit Again

Smoke rises from the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the US Embassy and the Iraqi government offices, in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 27, 2007. A huge explosion thundered across central Baghdad shortly before sunset Saturday when what appeared to be a rocket slammed to earth just inside the heavily fortified Green Zone. (AP photo/Dusan Vranic) 1/27/2007 BAGHDAD (AP) At least one rocket struck Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday, and two people suffered minor injuries, U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said. It was the second attack against the complex in three days. The blast sent a plume of smoke into the air and thundered across central Baghdad shortly before sunset, about the same time as Thursday's rocket attack on the Green Zone, the site of the U.S. and British embassies, the Iraqi government and thousands of American troops.

Vulnerable U.S. Supply Line From Kuwait Increasingly Coming Under

Attack: “This Area Has Been Heating Up”

An IED built around a mortar that Sgt. Smithson dug up with the Buffalo's claw. John

McChesney, NPR 01/26/07 NPR Fifty miles north of Baghdad sprawls the largest U.S. military supply center in Iraq. It's called Anaconda, and from here the things that keep an army going flow out to much of Iraq. But those supplies must come to Anaconda by truck — all the way up from Kuwait on a road the Army calls Tampa, or Highway 1. It's the job of the 875th Engineering Battalion of the Arkansas National Guard to keep a long section of this road clear of insurgents and their roadside bombs, so the big convoys can get through safely. But the 875th's section of the road is increasingly coming under attack. One recent morning, the sun is just coming up at Anaconda as soldiers climb up on their armored vehicles and carefully washed the windows with Windex. Sharp eyes and clean windows are critical to this mission. Lt. Paul Burns gathers the men of Alpha Company for the morning briefing. He tells them of an attack that occurred the day before on the route we will be on. "Right after they got off, turned south on Tampa, they got hit," Burns says. "Once again, it's normally fairly quiet, but it's been busier lately. So the long and the short of it is, we've seen a lot. We need to be on our toes today." The attack he mentions involved an improvised explosive device, small-arms fire, and a rocket-propelled grenade.

Over the past three weeks, this area has been heating up. Three soldiers and this reporter climb a ladder into a Buffalo, a monstrous Mac truck slabbed with half-inch armor. High off the ground, with a V-shaped belly to deflect blasts, it also boasts a long mechanical arm to grapple with explosives. We roll off the base with an escort of RG31s — essentially gunboats on wheels bristling with 50 caliber machine guns. Sgt. Michael Smithson, a fireman at home, is the commander of the Buffalo. He's from northeast Arkansas, like most of this battalion called the Flying Razorbacks. Smithson has had five IEDs explode near his thick-hided Buffalo. "When it hits," Smithson says, "It's this loud, rough… you get such an adrenaline spike, then after that you get kind of pissed off that you didn't find it and that they blew it on you." It's not long before we come to a trench that has been ripped across all four lanes of the highway. A Stryker armored vehicle was hit there, with an estimated 2,000-3,000 pounds of explosives. Miraculously no one in the armored vehicle was seriously injured. But the road is still so damaged that even after repairs, a large convoy truck would have to crawl over it at 2 or 3 miles an hour — perfect for an ambush. We stop as a radio command comes in. "Looks like we have a command wire about 5 meters off the road," the speaker says, "and the sun is reflecting off it." A command wire is a hair-thin, bare copper strand that only the sharpest eye can see. Insurgents use them in pairs to trigger an IED when they are not using a wireless device like a cell phone. So there may be another IED here. Driver Stephen Moore swings the Buffalo across the median where the wire was spotted. He and Smithson scan the area with binoculars. Moore spots it, a wire that goes into a bag but doesn't come back out, where the grass meets the dirt. Moore maneuvers in close to where the wires lead and Smithson begins to work the Buffalo's manipulating arm. Then he turns to me, and asks if I have earplugs. The blast earplugs help protect your eardrums. Medic Michael Rainey and I put on fire-resistant gloves. Sgt. Smithson stares intently at an image sent from a camera out on the arm, as he deftly pulls the wires away from the mud. Then he begins the tricky part: digging. A few minutes later he mutters, "Got it." "There's a IED right here. Just got it dug up. We're gonna finish interrogating it a little bit here." Sitting on Smithson's fork is an ugly, dirt-covered, two-foot-long mortar round, which he teases for a while, cleaning the mud off it. Then he gently rolls it off and marks it with a plastic bottle. We back off a couple of hundred yards and an explosive expert detonates

the round. Hardly a sound penetrates the thick-skinned Buffalo, but a big, black mushroom of smoke billows up. Back at the base, Lt. Burns, a man of few words, compliments the company on the find. "It's always a good day when we find them without having someone blow them after we find them," Burns says, "which happens quite a bit. So we found it and we cleared it." But still, it's not easy for the 411th Engineering Brigade, the Flying Razorbacks' mother organization, to keep up with repairs on this vital supply artery as attacks increase. And the soldiers of the 875th worry that the renewed pressure on Baghdad may push more insurgents their way, bringing with them high-tech bombs that can penetrate even the thickest armor.

The scene on Highway 1, as the National Guard patrol grinds to a halt. John

McChesney, NPR

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

One Less Rat On The Loose: Collaborator Who Blew Up Fifth-Century

Buddha Statues Of Bamiyan Killed In Kabul

January 26, 2007 The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan: An assailant killed Friday an Afghan lawmaker who was an official in the former Taliban regime and oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the fundamentalists' reign, an official said. Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in Kabul, said Zulmai Khan, Kabul's deputy police chief. A man dressed as a construction worker shot and killed Mohammadi and wounded one of his two bodyguards with an AK47 assault rifle before escaping, Khan said. Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province of Samangan in Afghanistan's parliament.

Assorted Resistance Action 1.26.07 AFP & The Associated Press A bomber blew himself up outside a US-funded aid office in Afghanistan. One of the policemen who confronted the bomber was wounded in the incident. A police officer were killed in a five-hour gun battle after guerrillas attacked a border post in the Gomal district bordering Pakistan. Five policemen were wounded in the clash. In southern Kandahar province, two resistance fighters on a motorbike fatally shot the chief of criminal department of police of Panjwayi district on Thursday, said Mohammad Akbar Khan, a police official.

TROOP NEWS

All Slovak Soldiers Withdrawn From Iraq

PRAGUE, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) All the Slovak soldiers have moved from Iraq to neighboring Kuwait, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told Slovak Radio on Saturday. "I have good news that all soldiers are out of Iraq, they are in Kuwait," Fico said.

Most of the 110 troops, who had operated near the town of Diwaniya to the south of Baghdad, were to return to Slovakia by the end of February, while a total of 11 Slovak army officers will remain in Iraq to help train the Iraqi armed forces, according to Fico. Fico's Smer-Social Democracy Party and its coalition member, the nationalist Slovak National Party, repeatedly pledged to withdraw the Slovak troops from Iraq last year. The decision for the withdrawal was made last October. Altogether four Slovak soldiers were killed during their stay in Iraq.

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME: BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

Burial services at Arlington National Cemetery for Sgt. Gregroy A. Wright, from Boston, Mass., Jan. 26, 2007 in Arlington, Va. Sgt. Wright died Jan. 13, in Muqdadiyah, Iraq and is the 298th person killed in Iraq War to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Veterans Leading Group To Anti-War Rally In D.C.

Jan 26 WISC Two University of Wisconsin-Madison students and veterans are preparing for a rally in Washington, D.C., to protest the war in Iraq.

Ben Ratliffe and Todd Dennis will help lead a bus tour of more than 140 people from Madison to Washington, D.C., on Friday, where they will join the Act Now To End The War protest. "We started organizing buses, and people just came out of the woodwork. They were just dying to get into the street and, you know, just stand up," said Ratliffe, who served from October 1995 through June 1997. Dennis said he thinks it's important to voice opposition to the war. "I think it's really important, and it shows how much people in this country are fed up with this war and continued occupation of Iraq," said Dennis, who served from July 1997 through July 2003. The bus tour kicked off with a rally at Memorial Union at 1 p.m. on Friday.

3,400 More From Fort Riley Off To Bush’s Imperial Slaughterhouse

Family and friends of soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division watch a deployment ceremony at Fort Riley, Kan., Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007. In the coming days, 3,400 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Divisions' 4th Brigade based at Fort Riley will board planes and head to Iraq, where they will be thrust into the fight to quell escalating violence in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

FROM A TROOP, WE DON'T WANT OR NEED YOUR FUCKING SUPPORT;

“I Respected The Iraqis I Fought And Killed”

[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in.] My name is Tim and I spent 10 months in Samarra, Iraq , a lifetime more than your weak ass 3 months . What the fuck do you know about death, war, and really feeling alive? Have you ever killed someone trying to kill you? Here's a tip FROM A TROOP, WE DON'T WANT OR NEED YOUR FUCKING SUPPORT . I respected the Iraqis I fought and killed . Those fuckers fought us with what they had and we killed them with what we had .

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY HIGH RISK LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT A TRAITOR WHO LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU THERE

That is not a good enough reason

A soldier stands guard as U.S. armoured vehicles patrol a road during the second day of curfew in Baghdad November 6, 2006. (Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters)

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

A U.S. soldier stands guard beside a destroyed police vehicle after a bomb attack in Baghdad January 27, 2007. REUTERS/Erik de Castro 25 Jan 2007 Reuters & 1.26.07 CBS/AP & Reuters & By Laith Hammoudi, McClatchy Newspapers & 27 Jan 2007 Reuters An Iraqi soldier was killed and were three wounded in a clash with guerrillas fighters in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad, a police source said. An interpreter who works for the U.S. military was killed in a drive-by shootings in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Clashes happened in the neighborhoods of Al Shurta Al Khamsa, Al Rai and Al Mowasalat in the western part of Baghdad (Karkh) between insurgents and the national police. 2 Iraqi soldiers were killed and 14 people were injured including 4 Iraqi army soldiers when a car bomb exploded in Alawi Al Hilla in the center of Baghdad today. Saad Hussein al-Alwani, the head of the Ramadi branch of the [pro-occupation] Iraqi National Congress (INC), was captured on Friday and found dead on Saturday, police said. The INC is a party headed by Ahmed Chalabi.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE END THE OCCUPATION

GET THE MESSAGE?

Students step on a U.S. flag during a memorial service for victims of a bomb attack, at Mustansiriya university in Baghdad January 25, 2007. A car bomb killed 60 people and wounded 110 more, including many students blown up as they waited for cars to take them home at the entrance of Mustansiriya university in Baghdad, police said. REUTERS/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud (IRAQ)

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“To Be Effective, The Movement Must Be Led By Those With The Strongest

Need And Greatest Power To End The War, Including GIs, Veterans,

Workers, People Of Color, And Immigrants”

January 24, 2007, New York City Labor Against the War

Despite overwhelming rejection of its policies in the November elections, the Bush administration has steadily escalated its war in the Middle East. This has meant not only ordering thousands more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, but arming and financing Israel's attacks on Lebanon and its increasingly brutal oppression of the Palestinians, launching a proxy invasion of Somalia, and threatening to attack Iran and Syria. As in all wars of conquest, ordinary people pay the price. In Iraq alone, this war for oil and empire has killed at least 655,000 Iraqis, caused 50,000 U.S. casualties, promoted civil war, and cost $1.2 trillion -- with no end in sight. Meanwhile at home, the administration continues to attack civil liberties, the Arab-Muslim community, undocumented immigrants, Katrina refugees, people of color and labor. Yet this is a bipartisan war, and as a willing accomplice, the Democratic Party cannot be trusted to end it. Even now, most politicians refuse to cut-off funding for the occupation of Iraq, let alone end the war as a whole. History shows that the U.S. got out of Vietnam only due to tenacious Vietnamese resistance and to the mass antiwar movement, particularly among GIs. Similarly, U.S. war in the Middle East today has been crippled by overwhelming Iraqi resistance, which deserves the support of a mass antiwar movement in this country. This movement -- which belongs to rank-and-file participants, rather than the leaders of any organization -- must join together in all upcoming protests, including those on January 27 and March 17. To be effective, the movement must be led by those with the strongest need and greatest power to end the war, including GIs, veterans, workers, people of color, and immigrants. It must also oppose the entire war and demand justice -- at home and abroad:

U.S. OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST 1. Immediate withdrawal from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia: No war funding, timetables, redeployment, advisors, air-war, or aid to U.S. client regimes. Reparations for U.S. devastation of the region. 2. No Support to the Israeli Apartheid State: End the $5 billion annual U.S. government aid to Israel, divest all private investments and union funds, boycott Israel, end the occupation and fully implement the Palestinian right of return. 3. No Attacks on Iran and Syria -- Or Anyone Else.

END THE WAR AT HOME 1. Defend Our Civil Liberties.

2. End Attacks on the Arab/Muslim Community. 3. Full Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants: No detention or deportation. 4. Money for Human Need, Not for War: Rebuild the Gulf Coast for -- and under the control of -- Katrina survivors. Decent jobs, food, housing, healthcare, education and transportation for all poor and working people. NYCLAW Co-Conveners (Other affiliations listed for identification only): Larry Adams Former President, NPMHU Local 300 Michael Letwin Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys Brenda Stokely Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; Co-Chair, Million Worker March (To endorse the statement go to: www.petitiononline.com/NYCLAW2/petition.html)

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER Telling the truth - about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance - whether it's in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you've read, we hope that you'll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net) Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send email requests to address up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

OCCUPATION REPORT

Good News For The Iraqi Resistance!

U.S. Occupation Commands’ Stupid Terror Tactics Recruit Even More Fighters To Kill U.S. Troops

An Iraqi citizen holds her child after US soldiers from the 1/14 Cavalry division forced their way into her home in eastern Baghdad to search it. (AFP/David Furst) [There’s nothing quite like invading somebody else’s country and busting into their houses by force to arouse an intense desire to kill you in the patriotic, self-respecting civilians who live there. [But your commanders know that, don’t they? Don’t they?]

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

Collaborator Dogs In Parliament Bite Each Other:

“Psychopath”

“Put Your Stuff On The Camel” January 27, 2007 By Marc Santora, New York Times [Excerpts] BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Shiite prime minister and Sunni lawmakers hurled insults at one another during a raucous session of Parliament on Thursday, with the prime minister threatening a Sunni lawmaker with arrest and the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit. In Parliament on Thursday, al-Maliki focused his anger on Sunni lawmakers, accusing one of being involved in sectarian kidnappings. The confrontation erupted after al-Maliki described the outlines of the new Baghdad security plan and pledged there would be no "safe haven" for militants. The leader of a powerful Sunni bloc, Abdul Nasir al-Janabi, provoked al-Maliki, saying over jeers from Shiite politicians, "We cannot trust the office of the prime minister." His microphone was quickly shut off, and al-Maliki lashed into him, essentially accusing him of being one of the outlaws he had just said would not be granted sanctuary. "I will show you," al-Maliki said, waving his finger in the air. "I will turn over the documents we have," implying that the legislator was guilty of crimes. The prime minister's claims were challenged by al-Janabi, who leads the Sunni-dominated Tawafiq Party. Al-Janabi, over jeers from the Shiite politicians in the room, said that the government should suspend executions, which he said were being used for political purposes, and called for parliamentary oversight of the new security plan to be sure Sunnis were not unfairly singled out. It was when he questioned al-Maliki's trustworthiness that the prime minister issued his vague threat to turn over incriminating information about al-Janabi. With that, the speaker of the Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, slammed his gavel down and condemned the prime minister and those who applauded him. "That is unacceptable, Mr. Prime Minister," al-Mashhadani said over the tumult. "It is unacceptable, Mr. Prime Minister, to make such accusations against a lawmaker under the dome of Parliament." But al-Maliki pressed on. "What about the 150 people kidnapped near Al Bairaat?" he said, referring to an area by a lake south of the Baghdad where al-Janabi has his base of support. Al-Janabi could not be reached for comment but another member of his party, Dhafer al-Ani, said that al-Maliki was trying to "terrify" his opponents into silence.

"If there are documents against him showing crimes, why were they not revealed until this session?" he said in an interview. "What kept him silent all this time?" In the Parliament room, politicians shouted over one another trying to be heard. Al-Mashhadani finally yelled for everyone to "shut up." He then used an ancient Arabic phrase, literally meaning to "put your stuff on the camel," which roughly translates as, "We expect more of this body." [Very roughly.] He said in disgust, "I cannot see how it is possible that a new security plan can work." The session of Parliament was attended by nearly all members, a rarity in recent months, and was broadcast live on Iraqi national television. The lawmakers had their shouting match while sitting beneath a banner with a phrase from the Quran that extols the importance of a civil debate in making good decisions. Shatha al-Mousawi, a lawmaker from the al-Maliki's leading Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, said some politicians were simply grandstanding for the cameras. But she said the fighting continued after al-Mashhadani abruptly called an end to the session and the cameras were turned off. Al-Mashhadani demanded that the prime minister apologize to al-Janabi. Members of al-Maliki's party said al-Janabi was the one who should apologize, al-Mousawi said. Al-Mashhadani then threatened to quit. "Someone said you do not need to quit, we will dismiss you," she said. Al-Mashhadani called a Shiite politician a "psychopath," as the bitter exchanges continued. Eventually, though, the tensions eased and the Parliament approved the security plan. No sooner had they finished their business than three rockets exploded in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the Parliament is housed.

Local Gangsters & Bush’s Thieves In Bed Together

U.S. Command Signs Up Highway Robbers To Fight Resistance In

Ramadi;

The Resistance Sends Greetings To Their Meeting

January 27, 2007 By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service [Excerpts] RAMADI, Iraq With the help of a confederation of about 50 Sunni Muslim tribal sheiks, the U.S. military recruited more than 800 police officers in December and is on track to do the same this month. This month, the confederation and U.S. officials held what they called the first Ramadi reconstruction conference in the compound of the leader of the Awakening, Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi. The American soldiers parked their Humvees in a gravel lot near some camels and a flock of sheep and left their combat boots on the porch as a sign of respect for the sheiks. Inside a marble-clad conference hall, Zilmer, the Marine commander, surveyed a carpeted room filled with dozens of men in black-and-gold robes, checkered headdresses and pinstriped suits and pronounced them a "very, very impressive collection of the leadership of Ramadi and al-Anbar province." As if to underscore the local antagonism toward the sheiks, a missile crashed outside the wall of the compound, briefly interrupting Sattar's speech. More than one observer questioned the motives of the Awakening's leader, [Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi] of the Albu Risha tribe, a man reputed to have amassed a fortune as part of a criminal network that robbed travelers on the desert highways of Anbar. The Awakening's members "are a group of gangsters," said Hussein al-Maadhidi, a journalist who lives in Haditha. An adviser to Sattar, Hikmet Sulaiman, denied that Sattar had been a highway bandit, saying, "He comes from a rich family, and he made himself . . . a quite good business in Iraq, Jordan and Dubai." Sulaiman did not answer an e-mail asking what the business was, but he said that Sattar has paid about $600,000 of his own money into the Awakening and that "thousands are now following him with their lives" because of his strong reputation.

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

The Master Race Marches On: Zionists Pass Law To Strip Palestinians Of Citizenship

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.] January 10, 2007 IMEMC & Agencies A new law passed Wednesday will allow the Israeli government to revoke the citizenship of citizens considered unpatriotic to the Jewish state of Israel. The law is expected to be applied especially to the 20% of Israeli citizens who are of Palestinian origin. Passage of the controversial law comes just as a torrent of criticism was launched by Knesset member Ahmed Tibi against the Knesset for alleged discrimination against its Arab members. Tibi accused the Knesset of discriminatory practices, in which Arab members are required to ask permission, even to use the bathroom, while Jewish members of the Knesset are not. The new law, passed despite a recommendation against it by the Israeli Attorney General, allows for the deportation and revocation of citizenship of Israelis for a wide range of offenses, including "visiting enemy nations" and "encouraging terror against Israel", with the latter being so open to interpretation that many Palestinians with Israeli citizenship fear that simply being Palestinian will be reason enough for Israeli officials to revoke their citizenship. [To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]

GI Special Looks Even Better Printed Out GI Special issues are archived at website http://www.militaryproject.org . The following have chosen to post issues; there may be others: http://www.williambowles.info/gispecial/2006/index.html; http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/; http://gi-special.iraq-news.de; http://www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/; http://www.uruknet.info/?p=-6&l=e; http://www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/gi-special.htm

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Got That Right

An anti Iraq war protester holds a sign while U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 11, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing GI Special distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed without charge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. GI Special has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is GI Special endorsed or sponsored by the originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research, education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice. Go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If printed out, this newsletter is your personal property and cannot legally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may not be prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2.